Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to charitable fundraising and more particularly to charitable donations and fundraising campaigns and systems.
Related Art
Giving charity is a tradition that has existed for a long time. Existing fundraising campaigns are typically operated by large non-profit organizations that collect money in aggregate and then disburse the money as they see fit. Thousands of fundraising organizations—some of which are classified as “non-profit”—exist which may raise donations from people and may then be entrusted to disburse the money judiciously to a “worthy cause” and people that need money. This conventional process is often very inefficient, as many of these fundraising organizations suffer from high overhead (including administrative and fundraising costs) or mismanagement.
One problematic outcome of this process is that many of these organizations may only ultimately spend or disburse around 50% of their charitable donation funds raised on the very programs that they were created to support. In other words, $0.50 of every $1 raised may be lost to, e.g., administrative tasks, salaries, fundraising costs, and the like. Another problem is that when one donates money in this conventional method, it is impossible to know where the money ends up, and one may not specify whom in need—if anyone—actually receives the money. Another problem is that individuals in dire need do not conventionally have a convenient way to request funds they require. Stated another way, because the term “worthy cause” is subjective and in the eye of the beholder, would-be donors are limited only to helping causes that someone else, or an organization, has vetted and deems “worthy.” For example, while one may know that one's money may broadly be going to help victims of a natural disaster, the destination of the money is very broad and non-specific. Consequently, there is a huge disconnect between the giver and the receiver. Nevertheless, this dynamic has remained the status quo. The present invention brings efficiency to this very inefficient and fragmented process of fundraising and charitable giving.